Go Green Initiative Schools Save Natural Resources

In this photo (courtesy of Alan Greth Photography) you see a student at the very first Go Green Initiative school, Walnut Grove Elementary, bringing recyclables from home to school. The local waste hauler, Pleasanton Garbage Service, pays the school a significant portion of the market value of the recyclables the school collects. To learn how to negotiate a similar arrangement with your local waste hauler, download the Planning Guide from the homepage of our website, and see the Appendix entitled, "Negotiating with Your Waste Hauler."

Each quarter, our top-notch schools turn in QPR's (quarterly progress reports), so that the Go Green Initiative family of schools can keep track of just how much great work they are accomplishing. Our latest recycling numbers are incredible!

Here's what our schools have kept out of their local landfills:

• 7,454,879 lbs. of paper


• 873,756 lbs. of cardboard


• 95,831 lbs. of aluminum


• 160,954 lbs. of plastic


• 589,842 lbs. of mixed recyclables


• 242,406 lbs. of food waste
  

The environmental benefit to all that recycling is:

• conservation of 1.4 million gallons, or 33,720 barrels, of oil


• conservation of 26 million gallons of water


• conservation of over 63 billion BTU's of electricity


• conservation of 3,721 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions


• conservation of 13,738 cubic yds. of landfill space